Sprinter Sacre pleased Nicky Henderson at his Seven Barrows base on Friday morning as he builds up towards the defence of his BetVictor Queen Mother Champion Chase crown.

The brilliant eight-year-old will have had the unusual preparation of not having completed in a race over fences this season if he gets to Cheltenham after he was pulled up at Kempton over Christmas with an irregular heartbeat.

That has now righted itself and the seven-times Grade One winner is gradually returning to full-speed work, with the option of a racecourse gallop on the horizon.

Sprinter Sacre will parade in the paddock at Newbury tomorrow, fitted with his regular heart monitor.

"Sprinter was very good this morning, he did everything we wanted," said Henderson.

"He had his heart monitor on this morning and it was all fine.

"Tomorrow is his rest day anyway, so we're just going to take him on an away day to Newbury.

"It's just down the road and he'll walk around the paddock for 10 minutes. We just want him to have a nice experience of going away again."

Provisional discussions are understood to have taken place about a possible racecourse gallop at Kempton on 22 February.

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